Stealing mobile phones and selling them without consequences is not a new practice in the Dominican Republic. For more than 15 years, authorities and telephone companies have been announcing various measures to prevent this.
One of the biggest problems facing the Dominican Telecommunications Institute (Indotel) is the number of dealers and people activating cell phones and selling chips behind the Telecommunications Act, 153-98.
In mid-2006, Indotel announced that it had authorized 92 dealers to resell telecommunications services, indicating that only in the first half of 2005, 73,000 878 series of stolen and / or lost mobile phones were reported, with the public being urged to report the thefts to the User Support Center (CAU).
At that time, the Dominican Telecommunications Institute issued resolution number 092-02, which establishes controls for detecting, preventing and sanctioning the activation of cell phones that are subject to theft or loss.
This provision provides that mobile telephony providers, their agents, resellers, distributors or other persons authorized to market these services to the public must not activate mobile telephones that are considered stolen or lost by their respective owners or renters reported.
To this, it is added that on several occasions Indotel and the National Police Department of Investigation of Crimes and High Technology Crimes (DICAT) raided several cell phone stores committed to ‘laundering denied series cell phones, causing the’: International Mobile Equipment Identity ”and activate stolen mobile phones.
Another measure announced by the Dominican Institute of Telecommunications in 2014 was the ban on the sale of chips without presentation of the identity card.
In 2015, Indotel and the telephone companies, along with the Global Mobile Ecosystem Association (GSMA), signed an agreement to prevent stolen phones from being activated.
The agreement indicated that mobile operators would connect to the GSMA database of stolen equipment to exchange the identification numbers of IMEI devices, thereby blocking the activation of reported equipment on other networks.
In 2016, and given the increase in the number of mobile phone theft, Indotel announced 8 measures, including: record the data of the mobile device such as the SIM card Pin and IMEI; When traveling on the street, the mobile equipment should be stored in a place that is least visible; use the hands-free tools (speaker, headset) when you need to answer a call.
Also make backup copies of the information stored on the device; protect your computer with passwords; install the application or tracking tool, if the mobile device is lost or stolen, report it to the service provider. This way you can disable the option to make and receive calls and change the access passwords.
In February 2017 and along with the launch of its new portal, Indotel, it reported that it would have an application that would allow citizens to check if mobile phones have been stolen. It can be found on your page and works by writing mobile phone IMEI. (https://gsma.indotel.gob.do/respuesta-de-imei/).
New measures
On February 6, 2021, Indotel announced that service providers must install equipment that allows people to activate a mobile phone, such as photos and placing their fingerprints.
The new president of the Dominican Institute of Telecommunications, Nelson Arroyo, has informed Listín Diario that a record of the IMEI of mobile phones will be kept through various resolutions at the time of activation, to ensure that it has not been stolen.